Iceland Part 1: The Blue Lagoon & Reykjavik Harbour

V.early on Tuesday morning Mitch and I arrived home from four f-ing amazing nights in Iceland. In case it doesn't come across in the pictures, Iceland is SUCH an incredible country, so wild and beautiful, unlike anywhere I've been before. Four nights were nowhere near long enough, there was so much of the country we didn't get around to see. I would definitely go back and squeeze in some more Reykjavik time too, I've got a lot of love for that city. I know there's tons of excellent websites and blogs out there with great advice (shout out to Unlocking Kiki - she lives in Reykjavik and has loads of good recommendations) but I thought I'd give my two cents, as well as share some of the hundreds and hundreds of pictures I took, so, without further ado...

We stayed at Downtown Hostel - which I would definitely recommend - right by the harbour and within a five minute walk of the centre. Thanks to our late arrival on the Thursday night we pretty much just dumped our stuff at the hostel and went in search of food. Google recommended The Fish Market and it was a hellava good choice. Definitely on the pricer-side of all the restaurants we went to during our stay but I had the best humarsúpa - that's lobster soup to you and me - in there. Having stuffed ourselves with Icelandic seafood, we headed back to the hostel for an early-ish night, a 9:30 am pick up for the Blue Lagoon, Iceland's geothermal spa, was on the cards the next day.

I feel I have to mention the coach/mini bus service they've got going on in Iceland. As Mitch and I don't drive we fully relied on this service throughout our stay and it was so incredibly efficient. Simply get your hostel to book your transfers and tours (from the northern lights tours to your lift to the airport) and they come and pick you up and drop you off wherever you like in Reykjavik. I could not fault this service. (Also, it's worth mentioning that basically everyone speaks English and all the Icelandic people we met were so friendly and very welcoming.)

Anyhoo, back to the Blue Lagoon. It's a good 50 minute drive from Reykjavik, closer to Keflavik airport actually, but there's plenty of beautiful Icelandic scenery to gawp at on the way. As you may expect, the Blue Lagoon is touristy but, in my opinion, it's definitely worth a visit. The water was so lovely and warm, your skin feels fabulous afterwards and the scenery is stunning, plus there are steam rooms, a bar and mud masks to try! They've got lots of different price packages on offer and I would recommend hiring a robe (the walk between the door and the pool is utterly freezing) or, if you're on a budget, just bring a spare towel. Our first hour there was the best (before midday), not nearly as busy and we experienced all different types of weather (including hail and snow) which was actually kinda fun. Last bit of advice: ladies, put lots of leave-in conditioner in your hair (they have it the showers). The salty waters apparently turn your hair to straw but I conditioned to the max and my hair was perfectly fine. After swimming about for 4 hours or so we hopped on a coach back to Reykjavik for some late lunch. We headed for the Sea Baron by the harbour to try their humarsúpa (v.good) and a bit of minke whale steak which was actually delicious but I won't be eating it again (I felt terribly guilty afterwards).

These fish (and other types of sea life) posters were everywhere in Reykjavik and I rather liked them.

Left: whale steak at The Sea Baron. Right: peppermint cheesecake at Stofan.

I fell a little bit in love with the architecture in Reykjavik, all the buildings were so unique-looking, not to mention colourful.

Swans swimming about in the tiny non frozen part of the lake in Reykjavik.

The sculpture garden

 Colourful houses

Before the post-swimming fatigue hit us we did a little exploring around the city and found the main shopping street, the famous Hallgrímskirkja church and the sculpture garden. By this point it had started hailing again so we decided to go for a nap at the hostel.  The weather in Iceland is crazy changeable. One minute it'll be hailing horizontally with winds of 51mph and then fifteen minutes it'll be bright sunshine which, as long as you've got a decent coat, scarf and gloves, we actually found sort of fun. There were lots of lovely little skandi shops and cafes to duck into if you wanted to avoid the worst of the hail storms. We rounded off our first full day in Iceland with a cup of camomile tea and a slice of peppermint cheesecake in the super cute Stofan Cafe :) 

Still to come: A mooch around the centre of Reykjavik, dog sledding & the golden circle tour. (Yup, I'm having to separate this into different posts, I don't want to send you crazy with an Icelandic photo overload - my parents only barely survived when I showed them all at once.)